Posted by Paul on December 21, 2003 at 09:35:38:
In Reply to: Upper Range/YBB-641 posted by Matt G. on December 20, 2003 at 20:13:21:
Matt,
I grew up with monster Conn orchestral horns in the 70s and 80s in high school and university but now have a 641 for my personal BBb horn. I would agree that this model is not one where anyone can sit down and make it sound great without some preparation. It is, however, a very good horn though if you want to treat it like one. Think more like a race car engine; treat it like a Sunday car drive engine with automatic transmission and no adjustments and it will be mediocre at best. Treat it with some practice and the preparation of tuning and maintenance and it can show off your talent with great sound. The 641 is definitely a horn that requires you to treat it as a driving machine not transportation.
I would second (PULL's) advice. Get access to a chromatic tuner and then take the time to adjust your main tuning slide and then each rotor tuning slide, one at a time, checking where it is best throughout the entire range from low to high. Before doing this, make sure you have done your own personal maintenance on the horn. Oil the rotors with a good rotor oil down the tuning pipes, make sure to oil the valve stem and valve casing with a medium oil (both top & bottom) and then use a Bearing/Lever lubricant (heavier oil) on all the joints of the linkages from the springs to the ball bearings over the rotors. This will make sure any problem with "Nimbleness" is not due to mechanical dryness.
For better nimbleness in articulation on this horn I would recommend trying something along the way of a Helleberg mouthpiece. This Horn is one that really accentuates the differences in mouthpieces and you can hear a very big difference from using different types. I like the Wartenburg Jacobs Helleberg for upper register and for cleaner articulation. A Conn Helleberg 7B does a nice job on this horn too. The Bach 24W seems a bit muddier. Experiment with what you have access to but try out something with more rim bite to see the difference this makes in your attack accuracy and nimbleness on the 641.
I had a professor tell me nearly every day that he would guarantee that Michael Lind would provide the most beautiful sound from a bent up third world school horn with two and a half valves than a monkey could get from the most perfect York ever built. The horn is the tool, you are the artist. Remember in the end that it is you who makes the music and you will be great.
Good Luck and Merry Christmas,
Paul Sidey
nice link for mouthpiece parameters
http://canbrass.com/store/yamaha-mthp.html
nice link for care of rotors
http://www.stusmusic.com/icrotor.html